Activities & enrichment
Enhancing the learning experience
We provide lots of opportunities for students to engage in learning activities and enrichment programmes. This helps them to rediscover the joy of learning and identify the skills they enjoy developing the most.
What learning activities do we offer?
We offer every student up to 15 hours of weekly direct face-to-face learning activities. Staff and students need to build a rapport from the early stages, so to begin with, we focus on attendance, engagement and creating positive and trusting relationships.
We give students the opportunity to learn key knowledge and skills in the core curriculum alongside PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic). Following their transition, they'll engage in a broad and enriching curriculum that is bespoke and co-produced with the students so they can input their thoughts and wishes. Their Individual Learning Plan (ILP) is strengths-based and designed to prepare them for the next stage of their journey.
When they’re ready, students can develop and embed their skills further through various alternative provisions. There are also opportunities for them to do some work experience and attend local gyms or volunteer at local charities or centres.
What enrichment programmes do we offer?
We enrich our students' experiences through gardening, forest school, outdoor adventurous activities, play-based approaches to learning, employability, enterprise, volunteering, and work experience, and we're constantly expanding these options.
For those students in residential care with either Esland or other companies, we have developed an additional set of curriculums called 'Learning Through Our Care'. The Learning Through Our Care curriculum harnesses the power of the relationships, routines, and secure attachments within home settings to ensure a positive outcome and successful transition into education.
The Learning Through Our Care subject areas include physical learning, preparation for adulthood, educational visits and community engagement opportunities. Tutors may set learning challenges to do at home based on a student's hobbies, interests, and talents. Or it could be based on a broader curriculum area like history or geography.
Our education and care teams work together in a therapeutically informed way to plan and provide opportunities that enhance a student's educational experience.
Everything we do links closely with the targets in a student's PEPs (Personal Education Plan) and, if applicable, their EHCP (Education, Health, and Care Plan) and will embed knowledge and skills from the core curriculum.